North Carolina secures online payments

North Carolina is using online payment software from CyberSource Corp. as part of its electronic payment services, said Mike Fenton, the state's chief technology officer. The Mountain View, Calif., company's software verifies credit card payments and looks for possible fraud.

The North Carolina Motor Vehicles Department started using CyberSource for driver's license renewal payments in September 2000, Fenton said, and the Office of IT Services extended its use to registrations and permits from the Wildlife Resources Commission and the Transportation Department.

Fenton said the online payment system is carefully audited for network, data and physical security, and there have been no instances of online fraud so far.

IT officials designed the payment system for Java, Extensible Markup Language, Component Object Model and Distributed COM transactions. Plans are in the works to accept debit cards and other forms of electronic payment, Fenton said.